You might be wondering why I’m bothering to post a few things on this whole Aliwood/Digg thing. Well, I think its a Big Deal, and here’s why.

Digg is the posterchild of the web2.0 – and the story around it is a phenomenal one. Kevin Rose, previously only known to geeks who happen to be fans of G4TV and/or TechTV and/or one of the many incarnations has skyrocketed into the blogosphere.

With Digg, he’s pierced the consciousness of corporate America and with the absolute torrential flood of traffic Digg is getting, is highlighting the Web2.0 in a way that no one else really has. You only need to look to the frontpage of Businessweek to affirm this.

There’s been talk of Digg changing the model of the way people view and read news. “Taken out of the hands of big media and back to the People”, I’ve heard.

And if the number of Digg clones all around the world are signal of things, this opinion may be gaining traction.

For all of those reasons and more, I think it makes the Aliwood issue even more important.

If Digg is founded on the principles that it should be The People that determine what is newsworthy, then why do we have the sudden and unexpected disappearance of one of its users AND all of her posts?

The People have been playing by the rules that Digg has drawn up for themselves. And they have thought that the Aliwood issue was newsworthy — and in doing so, dugg up her stories.

To quote Yodosama, a digger:

I know I didn’t digg her annoying posts (college athletics in tech deals, give me a break). But I did have some great fun with the comments, and now I don’t get to share them with my friends, like I was really, REALLY hoping to do (if anyone knows how they could possibly be accessed, they were my first post after all… and they were dugg…). And another detail we should note, her profile is gone, too ( http://digg.com/users/AliWood/homepage )

Although the stories themselvs may have been stale, the Aliwood issue was not. Unfortunately, because of the rules that Digg have written, those stories appear to be promoted because they’re newsworthy, rather than the story around the Digger herself.

Well, if that’s NOT have Digg ought to be, then Digg ought to say so.
The sudden disappearance of Aliwood’s profile AND all of her posts is disturbing in that editorial judgement seems to have been exerted where all Diggers believe there currently exists none.

It looks like Digg plays by a different set of rules than those that currently apply to normal “Diggers”.

At the time of this writing, Digg hasn’t replied yet as to why this is going on.

I really hope to hear from them or someone who knows the case sometime soon.
Otherwise, as from the words of a fellow digger, ziggyluvsu, this looks, smell, and feels, like a coverup.

I have to disclose that I am a great fan of Kevin Rose and his gang — I hope this is not what it turns out to be.

More to come as it becomes available.